Sailor's book reveals secrets about long-lost father

Each morning when Alan Boinus was a teenager, his father would shut off a buzzing alarm that woke the whole family. He remembers his father wore a sharp suit. He remembers his dad grabbed a briefcase packed with Mutual of Omaha policies.

Before his father left their Los Angeles home, he'd call out in a raspy voice and wave goodbye with a right hand that shook so badly he learned to write with his left. He told Alan he was injured in the Navy when his ship was bombed during World War II. He offered no more details.

When Sam Boinus set his hefty briefcase down at night, the family would catch hints of another life.

Alan loved when his father would create adventures, building "mystery tents" with blankets so there was a place to play inside the house. His father convinced him to try sardines, but Alan didn't share his love for the smelly fish.

His father followed news and politics, idolizing Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. Alan was inspired when he heard his dad had spoken out in favor of California's Fair Employment and Housing Act.

Sam would tell what Alan presumed were fish tales, about a massive barracuda he nearly caught in the South Pacific or how he coined the nickname "Tricky Dick" for President Richard Nixon.

Sam, a proud Jewish father, hosted an elaborate bar mitzvah for Alan on Jan. 6 and 7, 1967. The family was so exhausted that when his father's 53rd birthday came around Thursday, they promised to celebrate the coming Saturday.

On Friday morning, the alarm buzzed and Sam Boinus didn't turn it off.

"To this day, I cannot stand the sound of buzzers," said Alan, who now lives in Laguna Beach with his wife. "It always makes me think of that dreadful day."

His father, who had died of a heart attack, stayed alive in his memory, like when he tied his tie, as his father had taught him, before meeting marketing clients. Or when Alan, an activist like his father, worked to shut down the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.

But Alan Boinus knew there was more.

"It's always been my journey to find out more about my dad," Alan said.

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Since the Internet became the Internet, Alan has spent part of his father's birthday, on Jan. 12, searching Google for "Sam Boinus" in hopes of discovering anything about his father's time working on film sets, his military record or any newspaper clipping.

For years, he found only Social Security or census records.

Then, on Jan. 12, 2012, he found something.

"Sam Boinus" appeared in the previews of a self-published book called "One Sailor's Journey: Tales from World War II." Alan recalls his heart racing.

He read that Sam Boinus had worked for MGM Studios. That sounded like his father. This Sam Boinus "provided us with a never-ending source of amusement." That sounded like his dad. Then he saw the chapter "Danger at the River," dedicated to a giant barracuda.

He was pretty confident, at that point, he had found his father.

Alan had to call the author.

•••

Dolph Brostrom of Carlsbad enlisted at 21 and was sent to serve with ship repair unit AD-40 in New Caledonia, an Allied military base east of Australia. Dolph never spoke of those years until one night in 1980, his wife Marida said, when his family was sitting around a fire.

He launched into a story about the time he saw Sam Boinus go fishing with a nylon rope and a piece of steak. When Sam hooked a huge barracuda, and it broke the line and got away, Dolph and his buddies decided not to go swimming.

At his wife's encouragement, Dolph began tape-recording his stories. In 2008, shortly after he was diagnosed with a rare form of prostate cancer, he decided to write them down. The whole family helped with editing and feedback, and the book was published in October 2010.

•••

Sam's stories and sense of adventure made the endless days of toiling with ship repair unit AD-40 more tolerable.

"He was more fun than any of them," Dolph quipped, confined to a wheelchair but sharp as ever at 91.

When Dolph asked Sam what he'd done before joining the Navy, he said he was working on set for an Ava Gardner movie when the two became "very friendly." Alan now jokes his father joined the Navy to avoid a jealous Frank Sinatra.

Alan's mother died of cancer when he was 21, leaving him with no one to verify whether these stories were true or a sailor's yarns.

One tale in particular left Alan with more questions than answers about his father.

Dolph said he didn't remember having any Jews in his ship repair unit.

Sam "told me he was Lebanese," Dolph said, describing Sam in the book as "a big Lebanese fellow, about six feet tall" who ate ham and bacon without complaint.

Alan explained to Dolph that Sam Boinus was not Lebanese.

While Sam wasn't particularly religious, Alan said his father was proud of his Jewish heritage. Sam had spoken of how he'd wanted to help defeat Hitler. Sam also told stories of family members who sponsored relocation of Jewish relatives from Poland and Lithuania.

Dolph doesn't recall expressions from his crew of anti-Semitism – or any other discrimination.

"He must've felt the concern there," Alan said, with anti-Semitism directed at those bearing an "H" for Hebrew on their dog tags documented in books such as Deborah Dash Moore's "GI Jews."

While the concealment unsettles Alan a bit, through the revelation, he said, "I learned about my dad, and I learned about what it must've been like for a Jewish man during World War II."

•••

Sam's true heritage, additional photos and an account of Alan's discovery will be included in an expanded edition of "One Sailor's Journey," due out this fall.

Alan and Dolph talked this week. It was almost like a family reunion. They read passages from the book aloud and laughed about 70-year-old memories.

"You're very much like him," Dolph told Alan, with physical qualities, mannerisms and a humor that remind him of his Navy buddy.

The breath caught in Alan's throat and tears filled his eyes. He reached out to squeeze Dolph's arm.